Even as the country struggles to cope with the senseless terrorist carnage in Mumbai, it is business as usual for maverick Bollywood filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma.

Varma, who specializes in underworld films, accompanied Maharashtra's inept Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and his Bollywood actor son Ritesh Deshmukh to the Taj Mahal hotel on Sunday, November 30.

Since Varma is not a government official his tour of the hotel with the Chief Minister is raising hackles, with the assumption being that he leveraged his good relations with actor Ritesh Deshmukh to get an on the spot account of the tragedy from state officials for an upcoming film.

It is bad enough when leading Bollywood A-list stars, including Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Ajay Devgan and Kajol, issue unsolicited statements through their blogs and flacks on the tragedy, Ram Gopal Varma's 'pragmatic' approach has many shell shocked.